My
work for the past five years has been guided by the
following story:

Shuzan
(shou-shan 926-992) once held up his shippe* to an assembly
of his disciples and declared: “Call this a shippe
and you assert; call it not a shippe and you negate.
Now do not assert nor negate, and what would you call
it? Speak! Speak!” One of the disciples came out
of the ranks, took the shippe away from the master,
and breaking it in two, exclaimed, “What is this?”
- D.T. Suzuki, Introduction to Zen Buddhism.

This story encourages me to question the identity of
images and forms that I encounter rather than taking
them at face value. I try to intuitively investigate
these forms by searching out their essential qualities,
and abandoning any preconceived conceptions I may have
about them. This has led me through investigations of
singular forms, and multiple objects, and has guided
my hand into this current series based on compiling
images, objects, places, symbols, thoughts, and concerns
in the manner of a visual diary. These newest paintings
reflect our ability to receive and assimilate a myriad
of information on a daily basis. Although some of this
information may be utterly tragic, some of it enlightening
and uplifting, most of it is completely banal. Through
intuitive investigation, I try to sort through and bring
some type of order to this chaos of daily information
overload. The paintings have become a record of an autobiographical
visual language that consists of codes and symbols combined
to suggest personal narratives that are juxtaposed next
to or on top of previous statements. This creates a
layered history in the paintings much in the same way
as we store memories. Some shapes are strong and vivid,
while others become broken and incoherent, only suggested
by the pentimenti left as a visual reminder of their
previous existence.

With these paintings I’m not trying to decipher
our chaotic world in some vain attempt to create order
where order may seem impossible, I’m simply trying
to make sense of my own unique role within it.